Interview with Bavaria's Finance Minister Füracker: "The piggy bank has not been slaughtered"

Created: 11/24/2022, 11:46 am

By: Christian Deutschländer

Albert Füracker (r, CSU), Finance Minister of Bavaria, and Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters), Economics Minister of Bavaria, take part in the closed meeting of the Council of Ministers in the Munich Residenz.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

The corona pandemic and the energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war are a burden on the Bavarian state treasury.

Finance Minister Albert Füracker is nevertheless optimistic in the interview.

Munich - 71 billion euros, a deeper reach into the reserves, but formally no new debts - Bavaria's Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) went into the cabinet with this budget draft for next year on Tuesday.

First Corona, now the energy crisis are driving up spending compared to previous years.

They're taking billions out of reserves.

Isn't that a blood-red debt budget for 2023?

no

A withdrawal from reserves is not debt.

In the crisis, we are now using funds that we previously earned and saved wisely.

How many billions are still in the piggy bank - has it been slaughtered now?

There are several billions left depending on how this year ends.

So there can be no question of slaughtered.

Interview with Bavaria's Finance Minister Füracker: "The 2023 draft budget will comply with the debt brake"

Do you want to suspend the debt brake in the medium term and borrow money again?

In our draft budget for 2023, the debt brake is clearly adhered to.

And that's remarkable in these times.

The traffic light in Berlin is currently hundreds of billions of euros in debt and claims that this is constitutional.

Bavaria has budgeted 20 billion euros in debt during the Corona period.

How much of it did you actually access?

And how much do you secretly take with you in subsequent years?

So far we have needed 10.2 billion euros.

None of this will be transferred for any other purpose.

Bavaria's total debt is 37 billion euros.

Interest rates rise sharply.

When will this affect your household?

There are still old household debts, the liabilities from the Landesbank and our Corona measures.

All of this is structured differently and has different terms.

Of course, we will feel rising interest expenses in the medium term, for the time being liquidity management is largely cushioning such burdens.

also read

Putin before the fall?

“There are intrigues around”

China is arming itself, Russia is weakening: Putin threatens to lose Vladivostok

Füracker on the emergency situation of the Corona crisis: "Looking back, you're always smarter"

Finance ministers are thrifty people.

Looking back, which edition of the last few years do you regret?

We decided on all expenses together.

Of course, I prefer investing because it advances our country or generates returns.

But the same applies here: Looking back, you're always smarter...

...tests, expensive masks...

We had an absolute emergency situation during the Covid crisis, one must not forget that.

The state had to act immediately.

Almost 40 percent is personnel expenses.

Will you be planning significantly higher salary increases for civil servants in 2023?

The collective agreement runs until the end of September 2023, with a 2.8 percent jump this December - that's planned.

Inheritance tax cut: “I want property to retain its value”

Söder is thinking aloud about a state financial equalization lawsuit.

Do you believe in it?

A lawsuit would have a good chance of success.

In 2021 we had eleven recipient countries, only five donors, and Bavaria alone paid over nine billion euros.

This is a mismatch that is currently growing rapidly.

This can't go on forever.

Is it in a position to be taken seriously if you want to lower the inheritance tax that goes to the countries?

I want property to retain its value.

Heirs in Bavaria should not have to sell their parents' house in an emergency in order to be able to pay the tax.

Some of the prices have more than doubled since 2009, and the allowances have not changed for 13 years.

That does not fit.

We demand higher tax exemptions or a regionalization of this tax.

This will also affect Bavaria's approval of the annual tax law.

Interview by Christian Deutschländer